🥛 Uncle Sam’s 24/7 payment service is live…
Today’s edition is brought to you by Kraken Pro – the one-stop shop for pro traders backed by one of the most trusted names in the industry.
GM. This is Milk Road, your daily dose of crypto caffeine – we get you hyped, energized, and ready to conquer the day.
Happy Friday. Let’s boogie:
FedNow is LIVE 🏦
Why BTC’s booming in Japan & Turkey 🪙
A Milk Road WTF moment 🥴
Telegram bots are at a ~$100M market cap 🍪
Prices as of 9 AM ET.
UNCLE SAM’S INSTANT PAYMENT SERVICE IS LIVE 🏦
Ladies & gents, it’s here.
FedNow is LIVE. (*cue the fanfare*)
What is it? The Federal Reserve’s new instant payment system.
It allows banks & credit unions to transfer money 24/7, instantly. Meaning banks can process your money in seconds vs. days.
Here’s everything you need to know, in under 60 seconds:
41 banks/credit unions are already signed up, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, & USBancorp. So is the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
FedNow lets banks/credit unions settle transfers in central bank accounts. It’s mainly for businesses, so still gotta use Venmo to send $5 to your friend for Taco Bell.
It will use the Metal blockchain, a crypto network that can set rules for transfers (i.e. “don’t send to non-US citizens”, etc.)
The Fed wants to onboard all 10K financial institutions in the country eventually.
The Federal Reserve says FedNow isn’t connected to any CBDCs and it cannot look into customer accounts to view balances and activity (source: TrustMeBro™.)
This all comes with good news and bad news…
The Good News: FedNow will help speed up how long it takes to send/receive money.
Paychecks and invoices can take hours or days to process.
Now it will only take seconds.
The Bad News: Many think FedNow is the first step in the government introducing stuff like CBDCs, social scores, government surveillance, etc.
It’s like Pandora’s Box – once it’s opened, a bunch of bad sh*t happens.
Milk Road Take: We’re fans of getting paid quicker (mo’ money, mo’ Cheesy Gordita Crunches) but we think FedNow is nothing but bad news.
We’ll be sticking with our Bitcoin.
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BITCOIN’S BOOMING IN JAPAN & TURKEY 🪙
Every once in a while, we need a reminder of what crypto was made for in the first place…
An alternative finance system.
One that isn’t controlled by a centralized government, unlike the current systems… (**cough fiat currencies and FedNow cough**).
And while many fiat currencies around the world are drowning from record-high inflation and interest rates…
There are a handful of markets that are looking to Bitcoin as a solution.
1/ Japan
Bitcoin trading volume on Japanese exchanges rose from 69% → 80% in the first six months of 2023
Total trading volume was $4B in June – that’s a 60% surge year-over-year
Why? The yen is depreciating like crazy. People there want to put their money into something that won’t plummet in value. Enter Bitcoin.
2/ Turkey
BTC prices hit a new ATH against Lira on exchanges. BTC was trading ~1.3% higher on Turkey’s largest exchange than it was in global markets
Why? The nation’s local currency (the Lira) lost ~30% of its value against the U.S. dollar since January
Turkey also raised its interest rates to 17.5% this week to try to curb its whopping ~40% inflation rate. Yikes
Milk Road equation No. 38: Inflation = rise in Bitcoin use.
NOT TOP PLAY OF THE WEEK 🥴
Growing up, I looked forward to Fridays for one thing…
SportsCenter’s NOT Top Plays of the Week. It’s a highlight of some of the worst (and funniest) moments of the week.
People running into each other. The referee tripping a player. You name it.
So, we wanted to do our own version – Milk Road’s WTF Moment.
This week, we present to you… drumroll…
Guy Tries To Buy Car With NFTs.
This guy tried to buy a car with NFTs 💀
— dubzy (@dubzyxbt)
Jul 19, 2023
MILK & COOKIES 🍪
The European Blockchain Convention kicks off on October 24th. The largest blockchain event in Europe takes place in Barcelona, with one day left to get a discounted price on tickets.*
Trend Watch: Telegram bot tokens are almost at a $100M market cap. These are automated programs that make crypto trading as easy as sending a Telegram message. (And business has been boomin’!)
Solana Labs dropped a new compiler called Solang. It lets developers use Solidity (the main Ethereum programming language) on Solana. So-Long, Ethereum.
Kuwait has imposed an “absolute ban” on crypto. No crypto trading, no crypto payments, no crypto mining. Nothing. Zip. Nada.
OpenSea launched a new NFT trading feature called Deals. It lets people offer NFT trades to each other, in a secure way.
*This is sponsored content
MILKY MEME 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
happy Friday, Roaders
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)
Jul 21, 2023
DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
